Philip Kennicott writes in the Washington Post:
“Until a week ago, it was unthinkable that the president of the United States would take direct control of the nonpartisan Kennedy Center for the Arts, fire board members not deemed personally loyal to him, replace them with members of his inner circle and install a widely disliked political operative with little experience in the arts as interim director.”
He interviewed a number of arts leaders who spoke on condition of anonymity because “they feel it is no longer safe to speak freely about art and culture in the United States.”